Before contact with Europeans had begun, the native peoples of North America were varied in their demographic characteristics; nevertheless, available evidence indicates that, on an average, their life-expectancy-at-birth values fell into the same low ranges typical for other groups at similar levels of technological development. While the total population at contact is still unknown, political and cultural biases have generally forced estimates into artificially high or low ranges. There is general agreement that the shock of contact with invading Europeans led to substantial reductions among most aboriginal populations, but in North America some groups were much less disrupted than others. Many original populations disappeared altogether, but whether or not their demise was primarily a function of short-run, rapid disruption caused by disease andlor warfare, or a slower process spread out over several generations involving assimilation in its various forms, remains uncertain. With the establishment of the reservation system in the 19th century a basis was provided far continued demographic and cultural survival. By the early 20th century most reservation populations were beginning a demographic transition based on declining death rates and high fertility. For several generations rapid growth has continued. As urbanization increases recent fertility declines are expected to accelerate even further. Meanwhile the rapid urbanization of the surviving native peoples poses a real threat to their cultural distinctiveness. Finally, all phases of native American demographic history are characterized by defective and inadequate data which makes straightforward description or analysis perilous.The demographic encounter between the New World and Old is one of the most dramatic chapters in world population history. Evolving for centuries in relative isolation from the Asians, Africans, and Europeans who comprised the majority of the world's population, the natives of the Americas were abruptly brought into contact with the Old World from the fifteenth century onwards. Thereafter, successive New World populations found their existence under sustained assault. In spite of the extreme demographic stress that contact generated, the survivors adapted and ultimately rallied, demonstrating, on a continental scale, the resiliency of the human species.While the demography of the New World native populations is intrinsically interesting, there is as yet no adequate synthesis of it. Indeed, such a synthesis is probably premature. The quantity and quality of the data available rarely inspires confidence in its users. Even recent data must be handled cautiously. The techniques of estimation that must be used in conjunction with the available data still produce figures with wide margins of error. In this context, controversy flourishes and little can be said with 0096 848W8212501 0133$05 50 1982 Alan R Liss, Inc
